Open Thread Wednesday

Shameful trend in North Brooklyn Heights. Cutting down healthy mature trees as part of your back yard renovation for “more light”. I went over to investigate the reason for removal. Even the tree trimmers thought it was crazy.

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how do you know its for more light? i a couple of years ago we had to remove the tree because the roots were actually destroying the foundation and wall of the tree making the building unstable. also some larger trees have caused massive damage and been damaged from the hurricanes the past two years. as we all know the big tree that fell on grace church is gone.

I don’t recall a tree falling on the church. A tree on Hicks fell on the sidewall on the house on the corner of Remsen and grace court – the house that backs up to the side grace church. It was in a massive windstorm a few years ago. The city has since paved over the tree pit with asphalt but it’s been marked for a new tree pit this month. About 3 other massive trees also came down in that storm.

The trees pictured could easily have been removed for light. Or for invasive roots. Or for Asian longhorn beetle infestation. Or for a rotting inner trunk that made them a liability to all the surrounding homes. We don’t know.

It’s always a shame though when the city loses a mature canopy. One thing we can all do is donate to the BHA’s designated Tree Fund. It’s used to fund the planting and care of new trees and the expansion of undersized tree pits. You can also adopt a new sapling if you see one in need. Get a gator bag and fill it up once a week.

Just noticed that a Getir store (distribution center) opened on Pierrepont between Clinton and Cadman. I don’t know anyone that’s every used the service so it was a little surprising to see. Then again, it’s nice to see open store fronts filled though I would prefer a true store. For those that don’t know, Getir is one of those app-based services that delivers convenience items in 30 minutes or less.

Haven’t seen the weekly Covid numbers posted by a guy whose vision of this blog differs from my own, but – anecdotally – I’m hearing that the rush back to “normal” (I know I’ve dropped my guard, so to speak, to a large extent) may be hitting “not so fast” in various places.

Nor has Andrew added several “column inches” yet with his weekly (sometimes interesting) “from my bottomless collection of old photos….”

So, I’ll try to fill those gaps by wondering out loud – again, but not in at least 6 months – how/why properties like the one at Clark and Monroe (or even St. Ann’s Church) can go many years – 20, as a guess with St. Ann’s – without remediating something and making sidewalk sheds semi-permanent.

One knows that “private property” is almost sacrosanct in our country, but *ALMOST* obviously does have some exceptions – both in law and “wisdom.” Each case differs, but there must be a thousand such properties throughout the City, and for all that the Adams administration came out “against rats” this week, some abandoned buildings might as well have signs encouraging rats to be fruitful & multiply. Heaven knows, we are densely populated. Leaving aside aesthetics – again, why insist on bluestone paving when you have eyesores seemingly forever on otherwise beautiful blocks? – isn’t public safety (danger of fires, collapse, pipes bursting, etc.) a high enough priority to let the City or a neighbor make a tear-down happen?! Surely, a building inspector could certify that a building is beyond repair and eliminate most of the DANGERS that way – without really harming the property-owner financially.

I’m not suggesting that for St. Ann’s, of course, but the NY Episcopal diocese has resources that many countries would envy. Are they required to have a plan on file as to remediation? Or can they act badly … forever – vis a vis the community they “serve?”

That one has been there for close to a year at least. But now there’s another (same business or similar) next to Perelandra. Those places are a scourge to our city. I can’t wait for all of them to go bankrupt.

The debris in the chipping shot looks like oak, judging by leaf shape.

Took this photo of a film shoot on the public pier at Fulton Ferry several decades ago, before the former fire station became an ice cream place:
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